Over the centuries, Croatian forestry has fallen under different forms of regime, ownership and
management, ranging from the Ottoman empire to state control under the former Republic of
Yugoslavia. Today it is on the road towards a market-oriented structure, having witnessed a number of
major changes in the 20th century alone.

FROM WORLD WAR I TO TODAY

Following World War I, Croatia's forests were owned and run by a mixture of entities and individuals:
the state (25.6%), private owners (24.3%), frontiersmen (18.7%), communities (13.6%), municipalities
and villages (10.9%), institutions and societies (3.1%), banks and corporations (1.9%) and the church
(1.8%). Following nationalization in 1922, frontier forests came under state control.

Many of the problems faced by Croatia's forests today have their origin in the post-World War II
period under the former Republic of Yugoslavia. After decades of social ownership, frequent
reorganization, a division of activities between silviculture and logging, and complex enterprises
comprising both forest management and timber industries, forestry felt the negative effects of a
centrally-planned economy. Croatian forests paid the price of, for example, an unconvertible currency,
controlled information flows, high levels of inflation and high foreign debt — it is estimated that in
this period, the permitted level of logging was exceeded by almost 50 million m3, with annual exports
of timber standing at approximately 320 000 m3 (80% of the total wood exports of the former Republic
Yugoslavia).

Since 1991, Croatia has had to face the decision of whether to follow past practices or restructure the
forest economy and introduce market-oriented principles. Many key issues have still not been
resolved:

is it possible to achieve denationalization through a mixture of restitution and
compensation?;

the most valuable forests occupy roughly 30% of Croatia's total forest area;

over half a million hectares of forest land has suffered degradation;

private forest holdings have been reduced to an average size of 0.5–1.5 hectares, with
growing stock of less than 80m3/hectare;

the privatization of the wood industry is still at a very early stage;

about 250 000 hectares of land is unusable because of landmines; and

in the first eight months of 1998 alone, about 25 000 hectares of forest land was lost to
fire.

Furthermore, compared to 1990, felling has fallen by about one-third, use of farm tractors with
winches has dropped by 40% and skidders by about 30%, and 40% less trucks and trailers are being
used to transport timber. During the war, about 3 000 chain saws were either destroyed or stolen, along
with about 300 cars and mini-buses used to transport workers, 250 tractors, 200 cranes, 400 machines
and other equipment, and 250 ultra-short wave radio sets and other equipment.

In 1991, the ‘Croatian Forests’ public enterprise was created, signaling the start of a new phase of
forest management. ‘Croatian Forest’, which is responsible for 80% of the country's forests (see
Figure 1 for breakdown of forest ownership in Croatia), has its headquarters in Zagreb, in addition to
16 forest administration units, 171 forest stations, 660 district rangers and 30 work units throughout
the country.

Figure 1: Forest land in Croatia according to ownership (1991)

‘Croatian Forests’ is responsible for almost two million hectares of forest, in which growing stock
stands at 278.3 million m3, annual increment at 8.1 million m3, annual felling at 4.9 million m3, annual
reforestation at 3,300 hectares and annual afforestation at 2,900 hectares.

However, although bringing most of the country's forest area under one centralized organization has
potential (for example, under one of the overall objectives of national forestry policy which is
sustainable development, the annual felling rate is lower than the rate of annual increment - see Table
1), the share of forestry in Croatia's gross national product (GNP) is only 1.2% and that of the wood
industry 2.5%, for a total of 3.7% of GNP. In terms of employment, forestry employs 10,000 workers
and the wood industry about 30,000.

Table 1: Forest growing stock, annual increment and annual felling

Ownership

Total growing stock

Annual increment

Annual felling

' 000 m3

' 000 m3

%

' 000 m3

' 000 m3

State

278,324

85.8

8,123

4,934

Private

32,028

11.7

1,352

333

Other public

7,905

2.5

168

87

Total

324,257

100.0

9,643

5,354

The current annual volume of felling is about 5.4 million m3, and the breakdown of wood products is
illustrated in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Production of wood products and waste

At present, contractors and services performed by private enterprises account for about 50% of all
Croatian forest operations. Forest openings in Croatia vary from 20 m/ha in mountainous areas, to a
few metres per hectare in other parts of the country - on average, a forest road net densities amounts to
6.8 m/ha.

NEW STRATEGY AND POLICY

A new forestry policy is needed for Croatia, based on a long tradition in the sector, but making use of
modern technical and technological development combined with sound economic direction and a
market-oriented approach. The country must establish its own system of homogenization, certification,
attestation, licensing, accreditation of entities, equipment supply, contracting, services and so on.
About 50% of activities today are carried out through contractors and services, although a number of
different solutions are under consideration, such as full-time workers and use of equipment, full-time
workers with their own equipment and cooperation with contractors.

Research is needed to provide answers to many questions related to environmental protection and
other issues, such as:

machines and equipment that are permitted to operate in forests;

accreditation of test and measurement laboratories to issue certificates of validity for
technical equipment used in forestry;

adaptability and versatility of equipment;

criteria for evaluating techniques and technologies for forestry production;

an effective system for supervising the quality of environmental care;

protection of forestry from tractor damage;

supply of accessories; and

protection of workers.

The strategy of developing forestry techniques and technologies is the top of a pyramid, whose base is
made up of forestry routines, tactics and operations (see Figure 3). The choice of technology is the
starting point of a circle of demands related to new product strategies, a circle that includes
technological, ecological and ergonomic demands, as well as demands for technicality, effective
realization and maintenance, and care of sociological and cultural aspects.

Figure 3: Logging strategy pyramid

Garland (1996) uses a similar framework to describe the current state of logger education and training
in U.S. harvesting, and this can be used to clarify the distinctions between accreditation, certification
and licensing in Croatian logging operations.

A new forest policy will also mark the beginning of a stronger battle for the preservation of Croatia's
natural resources, such as coastal forest and forest land. For example, forest fires represent a critical
threat to coastal areas. In the first eight months of 1998 alone, almost 30,000 ha of forest land were
lost through fire. Over the last decade, an average of 10,000 ha/year have been burned to the ground.
A new form of organizing fire-fighting and introducing new equipment are necessary for reducing the
number of hectares lost to fire. There are three forms of fire-fighting organization: (a) professional fire
brigades and airborne fire-fighting fleets have been set up under the Ministry of the Interior and some
bucket-equipped helicopters and airplanes under the Ministry of Defence (from 1993); (b) municipal
fire-fighting units; and (c) industrial, sea or railway units (Jung, 1997). A World Bank loan will be
used for a Croatian Coastal Reconstruction and Protection Project, which includes the purchase of fire-fighting
equipment, afforestation of burned areas and improved efficiency in the fire-fighting sector.

The project will enhance the country's fire-fighting capability as well as fire prevention. In addition,
the project will support the comprehensive forest fire management strategy developed by the
government, which aims to (a) increase the resistance of forest stands to fire; (b) reduce the number of
fires; (c) reduce the initial attack time and improve fire-fighting capacity; and (d) increase the
efficiency of fire-fighting under high risk conditions. The proposed strategy includes a comprehensive
package of prevention, pre-suppression and suppression activities.

Other issues related to forest production systems include the emerging economy, forest die-back,
biodiversity, eco-balance and global physical changes.

Croatia has been able to form its own system of evaluating the most suitable strategy: educational
progress, extension and training; forest engineering and technological advancements; international
collaboration; increased use of forest bio-mass in generating energy; de-mining about 1,200 km of
forest roads and about 2,400 km2 of forest land, etc. But the most difficult of all is to change the
controlled way of thinking after half a century!

ENVIRONMENT AND FOREST SURROUNDINGS

The development and use of environmentally acceptable operating techniques and technologies must
take forest surroundings into consideration. The government-environment-industry triangle has
sometimes been referred to as the ‘forestry frustration and polarization triangle’ (Lambert &
Whittenbury, 1996), since ten surrounding contextual factors make the situation even more complex.
(see Figure 4).

Industrial, governmental and environmental interests must work together with a common approach to
finding acceptable solutions, through engineering disciplines that are capable of organizing a
systematic response to complex challenges.

There are two main factors inherent to development of forest operations: the first is continuous
pressure to reduce wood procurement unit costs, the second is an increase in non-wood services. Since
the 1960s, the primary research and development focus in forest operations has been on reducing
harvesting costs through mechanization, replacing manual labour with machinery. Since 1985, most
activities have focused on further improving profitability through better application of improved
working methods and operational planning. Today's challenge is not only to further reduce harvesting
unit costs, but also to integrate this with increasing demands for non-wood services. This is
particularly important in silvicultural practices, where the interaction between technical applications
and biological principles is inevitable.

CONCLUSIONS

Croatian forestry has chosen to follow the European model that establishes a fixed ratio between the
equipment owned by forest managements and equipment owned by contractors, and 16 limited
liability public companies have been created for timber transportation.

Reasonable strategies have to be found to help Croatian forests remain an irreplaceable element of the
country's landscape, economy and culture, and for this reason research into the problems of transition
must cover forestry practices in the widest sense of the term. Neither restructuring of non-forest work
nor forest concessions offer the best long-term solution.